Operations 11.12.2022

For many model railroaders, running trains in a similar fashion to how they operated in real life is an objective to building a layout. Prototype, prototype freelance or freelance, makes no difference. I worked with period information on way bills and schedules to create an experience for friends to visit and work in crews of two. 

Here's the crews from Nov 12...

Dave and Ed changing out cars in Kingston. Dave and I go back to high school. Ed is a member of our local Garden State Central Model RR club in Wall NJ.

Dan and Bill are picking up empties from Camp McDonald at Big Shanty. Both are members of our American Civil War RR's Historical Society. Historians to modelers participate in our monthly zoom meets.

Success!

Aside from the occasional, and in many cases prototypical mishaps and breakdowns, there were issues with derailments and decoder learning. Derailments were found at one turnout which has been rectified. But this is something that does occur. It's 1863. Trackage was rough to begin with. The key is not doing anything about the mishap and excusing oneself with "well, that's prototype". Repairs and fixes are part of the equation.    

Ed and Dave come to the end of their run. Truly, a good time was had by all.

Annual Civil War RR's Meet in Baltimore

We are known as the American Civil War Rail Roads Historical Society, created in 2003. For many years we would rendezvous at a location with ACW RR history. We've been to City Point, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Memphis (2x), Alexandria, Savannah, Harper's Ferry, Gettysburg, Hanover, now Baltimore, for a second time. Prior Baltimore trip was 2012. The trip covers about 3 days, Thursday evening through Sunday morning. Typical trips include site visits, clinics, speaker(s) and ideally operations sessions at a local model railroad. Here are some photos of our trip. Hope you enjoy the ride...

This was at the B&O museum in Ellicott (pronounced Elikit) City. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable. Being of Irish decent, he was very familiar with the B&O as one of his ancestors was a railman. 

Left to right, Charlie Taylor who models the M&C, O scale, and lives in Tennessee. DC Cebula, living in Delaware, models an HO freelance layout, the Del Central. The back of John Bopp who models in HO scale and is an historian of locomotives.

Here we all are in front of the William Mason 4-4-0 in the B&O RR Museum Roundhouse. This loco was leased by Disney for the Great Locomotive Chase and used as the Texas. Jeffrey Hunter, Slim Pickens and other actors rode this baby! 

Left to right, Charlie, Ken Bruns, Paul Ciesmelewski, DC, myself, John Bopp, David Bjorkman, Phil Ruehl and Marty Vaughn. 

I was able to get a peek into the cab. Later found out that this is verboten! 

Here we are at Bernie Kempinski's O scale USMRR Aquia Line participating in an operations session that Bernie had arranged for us. This is the highlight for many of us!

Until next time... Happy Rails!

Member's Bin Busy!

Over the last several weeks, as we have been honoring the "stay home" recommendations, I have been hearing from several friends and members about their respective projects. This post is to give y'all an idea on what folks are doing, from masters to beginners. There are four, most of whom you have seen before. First up, Charlie Taylor's M&C, Memphis and Charleston. He is currently further detailing the area in and around Memphis. Charlie is one of us 'crazy' modelers. In addition to hand carving tunnel entryways as limestone block, Charlie just finished carving this cobblestone street. 
This is the area planned for the cobblestones, around the M&C Depot. 

He uses a sheet of bass wood for carving the stones.

And here are two photos with final results...

Next we have a relatively new modeler, Paul Ciesmelewski. I met Paul through a local hobby shop, Hobby Masters, which unfortunately is no longer. However, Paul is one of those other rare modelers focusing on civil war and coincidentally, the Western & Atlantic. He has already scratch built the Chattanooga Car Shed and a church. His next project is the premier hotel of this dirt water town, at the time, the Crutchfield House. It was located within a short walking distance from the shed, or passenger depot. 

He has a unique approach in that he is building the shell to be able to be removed from the interior structure. 

Paul is dividing the interior into three floors and about 16 rooms. 

Main structure complete, he is adding this roof. Eventually Paul plans to add basic interiors, wall paper and home made furniture items. His 'crazy', however,... adding lights to the fireplaces! His layout will also depict the battle of Mission or Missionary Ridge in 1863. 

Someone known to most ACWRRHS members and perhaps in the model railroad community, LeBron Mathews, is DE-constructing his W&A with a reno plan to allow more options to run his railroad, operations and, as important given his inventory, storage. As he has begun to remove structures and dismantle track, to counter balance the remorse of tear-down he is also upgrading structures with finer details, if you can imagine that for LeBron. The LOC (library of Congress) is his primary source. 

Most of LeBron's work is scratch building. One example of his upgrading is the Atlanta Hotel. A photo prior to the changes below.

His rebuild shows a completely different roof trim, sign with yellow trim, balcony spindles removed for a solid wall and red shutters. What other changes can you see?

How does he know this? There are a couple of sources. One is the LOC where TIFF files reveal slight variations of color as well as details otherwise undetected. Second source is information about structure building at that time. As an example, two primary colors were used for trim and shudders. Generally speaking, green was primarily used on residential and small businesses. Red would be found on the more high end establishments such as the Atlanta Hotel, one of a few in Atlanta.

In addition to his scratch building, LeBron also uses kits. One of the most similar looking period structures is made my DPM, Design Preservation Models. Here he changed out the roof from flat to tin.

His coloring and weathering is off the charts! George Selios would be proud!

Next up is the Delaware Central RR. Our good friend, and co-founder of the American Civil War RR Historical Society, DC Cebula is beginning his foray building a layout. After MUCH re-configuring... no not the layout plan although that is always a process, he is revamping his basement first! Already with new lighting, outlets, relocating his "stuff" and having purchased lumber, here is his latest track plan. Grids are 1' so this will be a 4'x12', however I believe he mentioned he is working to extend it to 18' . The red line is the backdrop, narrow side for staging. However, please do take a ride to and into his new BLOG! 

https://delawarecentralrailroad.blogspot.com/

One fella you may have heard about in one conversation of another as only a few of us know is Rhett Tyler. He certainly has the right name for our era. Rhett has been nt only modeling but has built some of thee most detailed accurate models of locomotives. He did one for me based on a photo from Chattanooga, #50, a USMRR 4-4-0. That was when I was planning to have Union forces in Chattanooga and Confederate in Atlanta. However, after he built this gorgeous model I soon after dropped the Union idea. It is now being reconfigured as the Tennessee, a Georgia RR loco. Check out the piping and the prototypical cross head guide. 

Decals are compliments to John Ott, another master who we quite honored to have in our midst and joined us for the Gettysburg meet in 2015.

Rhett is modeling the New York Central & Hudson River RR. His bridge is scratch built. And these are just a few of his collection of locomotives. I believe he has close to 14. His knowledge of locomotives is extraordinary as well as rolling stock of the era. I have called him on many occasions when uncertain about a design element when doing my own rebuilds.

As you can see, and perhaps you as well, we are channeling our energies that can uplift us when the news can be quite disturbing. In one way we intend that these posts and photos will be a contribution to you, as an inspiration or at very least an enjoyable read. Very Best! 

TRAIN RUNNING ON THE AQUIA LINE, RICHMOND, FREDRICKSBURG & POTOMAC RR

Our group, the American Civil War RR Historical Society, had our annual meet here in Harper's Ferry. Our site visits include Harper's Ferry of course plus the Martinsburg Roundhouse facilities and Bernie Kempinski's O scale model of the Aquia Line, otherwise known as the RF&P. It was heavily traveled by the USMRR as the Yanks were continuing their push into VA. Here is a video of three 3-man crews operating according to a live schedule of train movements at his home in Alexandria.

http://usmrr.blogspot.com/2017/09/we-have-met-layout-and-it-is-ours.html

ACWRRHS MEMPHIS MEET

We came, we saw and were inspired... and had a heck of a good time! Members of our Civil War Railroads and Modeling Yahoo group converged on Memphis TN last weekend. About 20 members, which is a good attendance, met at a LaQuinta hotel to share projects, research, modeling projects and a passionate interest in this era's railroading. We also traveled to one of the more famous battlefields, Shiloh, for a fabulous tour with Lee Millar who has been giving talks, tours and reenacting for about 20 years. One highlight was running trains on Charlie Taylor's M&C 'O' scale model railroad at his home. The following photos are a window into our ventures. 

Ron Flowers of MI, Bernie Kempinski who models the USMRR Aquia Line in Alexandria, and Dave Bright who is the author of a fabulous web site http://www.csa-railroads.com/. He has done remarkable research on Confederate railroads. The view is of Charlie Taylor's Howe Truss bridge over the Running Water Creek at Whiteside  TN in 1862.

Charlie Taylor, our host, and Marty Vaughn. Marty is a very skilled model painter and sculptor in HO scale. Marty now paints figures for my layout.

Mark Richardson, from CA who models in N, HO and O scale and Mark Brainard, railroad historian who is a volunteer at places like Chattanooga where we first met Mark who was a presenter at last year's convention.

Far left is Tim Bode, first time attendee who had a grand time. Charlie Curro who constructed the buildings and is a master builder in his own right. Charlie's brother Harold who is a master machinist and made the turntables with the "Geneva Wheel", a very complex and precise device for accurate functional operation, D.C. Cebula, our founder and moderator, and Charlie.

John Turner who has installed the decoders in Charlie's locos and troubleshooting craftsman. Rick Sester who is a skilled model railroader in his own right.

Lee Millar giving one of his most thorough interpretations of the Battle of Shiloh. 

And me, Charlie Curro (CC) and Charlie Taylor, who is gesturing..."What train?', at the Crossroads of Corinth where a significant battle occurred on two occasions, both of which were won by the Union army. Look to the far left. See a light in the distance. Little did we know there was a train-a-comin! In less than a minute it was upon us traveling about 50 mph. We got off soon as we heard the whistle which was a bit of a shock. Good thing they have a whistle!
See many more photos on our civil war railroads and modeling site http://www.csa-railroads.com/
Hope you enjoyed the trip.

ACWRRHS Spetember 2015 Annual Meet

The York 4-4-0 on the return to New Freedom from Hanover Junction. This was one of our highlights last weekend as we ventured into PA for our annual meet. From left to right, Teresa and Gerry Dykstra, Alan Hart and Mark Richardson, first timers to our meets, Al and Barb Mueller and Janet, behind Barbara, and Joel Salmons. This train operates out of the Steam Into History museum in New Freedom. On this run it was meant for railfanning picture taking. Unfortunately for us we did not know that this event was planned for night photos. All we had were iPhones and less-than high end cameras. Fortunately one of the pros was kind enough to take this shot. 
Below is Bill Aldrich, a volunteer guide and authority on the Gettysburg train station and an extraordinary model builder. Here he is showing us his G scale model of the 4-4-0 Conewago which pulled the car carrying then president Lincoln to Gettysburg for the consecration of the national cemetery where he read the famous Gettysburg Address. Bill scratch built the 4-4-0 from the actual plans... and I do mean scratch including working levers, double cross head guides and an engineer who he fashioned from a photo of the actual engineer.

 Here is a closer view of his craftsmanship.

 And another. Bill also scratch built the passenger car.

And here is one with the engineer.

He also built a G scale model of the Gettysburg station and an HO model of the station area including various structures and track. These are located in the train station. Bill also built an N scale model of the entire town which is housed in the Wills house, the building where Lincoln stayed during his trip. These and many other photos of our trip can be viewed on our site: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Civil_War_RRs
Once there, click on Photos, then Albums and click open 2015 MEET. There are other photos showing N scale modules built by Joel Salmons and Paul Dobbs as well as beautiful G scale models of flat cars hauling artillery  most of which was scratch built by Dennis Lenz. Here is one shot of him with Gerry. That's Paul, red shirt, and Joel in the background.

 

ACWRR 2015 Calendar

 

The 2015 Official Calendar of the American Civil War Rail Roads Historical Society is now available. It features many layouts and models in N, HO and O scales by various members of our yahoo group, Civil War Roads. Most photos were shot by D.C. Cebula who had one other of his photos featured in the 2015 NMRA Calendar. Please contact me by leaving a comment and email address. I will contact you ASAP.